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The Dogon religion is the traditional African religious or spiritual beliefs of the Dogon people of Mali. Dogons who practice the traditional religion of their ancestors believe in one Supreme Creator called Amma (or Ama [9]). [10] Amma is the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent Creator in Dogon religion. [11]
The Mali Empire (Manding: Mandé [3] or Manden Duguba; [4] [5] Arabic: مالي, romanized: Mālī) was an empire in West Africa from c. 1226 to 1670. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita ( c. 1214 – c. 1255 ) and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa (Musa Keita).
The religion embraced many aspects of nature which are found in other traditional African religions. The key spiritual figures in the religion were the Nummo/Nommo twins. According to Ogotemmêli's description of them, the Nummo, whom he also referred to as "Water", had green skin covered in green hair, and were formed like humans from the ...
There are a few references to Mali in early Islamic literature. Among these are references to "Pene" and "Malal" in the work of al-Bakri in 1068, [1] [2] the story of the conversion of an early ruler, known to Ibn Khaldun (by 1397) as Barmandana, [3] and a few geographical details in the work of al-Idrisi.
Islam has been present in West Africa for over a millennium, and Mali has been the center of various Islamic empires, such as the Ghana Empire and the Songhai Empire. Mali was a French colony and now follows the secular French model in which the government does not intervene in religious matters. [3]
The dramatic 17-m pyramidal structure of the Tomb of Askia was built by Askia Mohamed, the Emperor of Songhai, in 1495 in his capital Gao. It bears testimony to the power and riches of the empire that flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries through its control of the trans-Saharan trade, notably in salt and gold.
Mali's literary tradition is largely oral, with jalis reciting or singing histories and stories from memory. [4] [5] Amadou Hampâté Bâ, Mali's best-known historian, spent much of his life recording the oral traditions of his own Fula teachers, as well as those of Bambara and other Mande neighbors. [5]
Mali was part of three successive powerful and wealthy West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade: the Ghana Empire (for which Ghana is named), the Mali Empire (for which Mali is named), and the Songhai Empire. At its peak in 1300, the Mali Empire was the wealthiest country in Africa [20] with its 14th-century emperor Mansa Musa ...